Landing in a new place can throw even the most grounded solo traveller off balance. The unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells can combine to leave you feeling exhilarated one moment and completely disoriented the next. Without the usual anchors – your regular coffee spot, the morning walk you look forward to and know by heart, and the cues of your daily routine – it’s easy to feel untethered, insecure and overwhelmed. Finding a rhythm in this kind of unfamiliarity is not about replicating ‘home’, but about slowly tuning in to the local tempo and using small, steady rituals to help you feel connected to the internal rhythm of your mind and body that defines who we are, even in a strange place many miles from home.

It’s easy to underestimate how different languages and cultural norms can quietly disrupt our internal balance. Even simple tasks like ordering food or catching a bus can feel mentally taxing when you’re translating in your head or unsure of local etiquette. Being kind to ourselves by resting, pausing, and learning slowly, helps us find and nurture a rhythm that honours immersion without exhaustion
When I am travelling, I think of my emotional and physical wellbeing not as a long list of boxes to be ticked off, but as beats in the rhythm of my daily life – personal checkpoints I reach and respect to support me throughout my journey. It's a popular strategy around the world that includes four important stages: Move, Rest, Nourish and Repeat.

Move – a morning walk along the beach before the heat sets in, a climb up city stairs to catch an unforgettable view, or a gentle, slow full body stretch in a park or on the beach. Small, focussed movements ground me, reminding me that my presence anywhere and for any reason starts with breath, and by nurturing myself through time spent gently balancing stillness and activity.

Rest – is a key part of my rhythm. It’s an afternoon nap after a long-haul flight or a full-on day, finding a quiet spot to reflect and savour my dinner in silence on the fringe of a noisy night market, or understanding that skipping a sunrise tour doesn’t mean I’ve wasted the entire day.

Nourish – and not just with food, but also my mind. Reading, writing reflections and details in my journal, or spending time with art, nature, and in quiet curiosity and contemplation.

Repeat – not as though it is some kind of test or obligation, but because a rhythm keeps me balanced, grateful, and curious … and tuned to the world around me in deeply personal ways.

It’s not our action-packed itinerary that sustains us, but rhythm – the rhythm of moving, pausing, nourishing, and beginning again. Our internalised rhythm is a return to ourselves – a solo traveller’s constant companion – wherever we are in the world.